Okay, FINALLY, the last recap of my Boston trip. It only took me a month to do this. One of these days I'll get back into the groove of blogging.
The last full day of my trip started with a road trip to Newport, Rhode Island to tour some of the Newport Mansions. I was excited to cross another state off my list! :) I have to say, Newport was a beautiful town. I want to go back when I can spend more time there. We only had time to tour two of the mansions, but they were beautiful!
Taking pictures along the cliffs. We are risk takers!
But we got good pictures!
Lunch at the Black Pearl
Walking around the docks.
We had to leave Newport by early afternoon in order to get back to Boston in time for the Red Sox/Rangers game. Sadly the game did not go that well for the Rangers, but I still had fun seeing a game at Fenway.
Riding the bus to the game
Nelson Cruz hit a home run during the game and I came so close to catching it. Well, it bounced off the wall behind me, you could see me on the highlight trying to get the ball. It landed three rows in front of me and some Red Sox fan got it. The guy was being told to throw it back (most fans throw back home run balls from the opposing team). He saw me wearing my Rangers shirt and offered to give me the ball. So, despite a terrible loss, I got a Rangers home run ball. :)
I need to get this autographed!
I was giddy. :)
Knowing that I needed something to lift my spirits, the Rangers put Craig Gentry into the game to cheer me up. :)
I see you there Craig.
So, my Boston trip was a blast. I cannot wait to go back. Jodi's sweet aunt gave me a ride to the airport that Wednesday (Jodi had to work). I found an NCIS marathon to watch on the flight back. Seriously, I'm really liking Jet Blue airlines!! :)
I love Gibbs!
I had to laugh when I landed because I had 61 notifications on Facebook. I've never had that many in a span of four hours before. Oh yeah, and check out the status I had when I checked in at the Boston airport. True story, guess I look suspicious! :)
Sorry this recap took so long, I hope to return to my normal blogging soon!!
I'm not even going to make excuses on why I haven't blogged. Life happens, and I've been lazy. BUT, I do want to FINALLY wrap up my Boston trip (which I took last month). Two more recaps to go!
Day 3 of my trip was greeted with rain, so we spent the morning visiting the JFK Presidential Library and Museum. Living in Dallas, I've been to the Sixth Floor Museum, which focuses on Kennedy's death. It was nice to see a museum that focused on his life.
It's kinda blurry, but hey, Rachel for president! My first order of business would be to make MLB Opening Day a National Holiday. :)
JFK's sailboat
The Commonwealth Museum is next door to the JFK Library and has exhibits that depict the history of Massachusetts. You know I'm a history nerd. I've heard Texas history my whole life, so it was interesting hearing history from another place.
The rain finally stopped by the afternoon, so we headed over to Fenway Park for a tour. If you know me, you know my goal is to see all the MLB stadiums and parks in the US (and Canada). I was able to cross Fenway off my list!
We got student discounts on our tickets. :)
Sitting in the Green Monster seats.
Look what I found in the Fenway gift shop!
On our way back to Jodi's, we went by JFK's childhood home. It was already closed, so we couldn't go in for a tour, maybe next time.
After being up late the previous two nights, we made it an early night and spent the evening back at Jodi's watching mindless TV.
Hope everyone is doing well, I promise to not let three weeks go by before I give you the recap of the last day of my vacation! Thanks to everyone who has checked on me. I'm doing good! :)
Day 2 of my Boston Trip started with a road trip to Salem!
We parked in a lot next to St. Peter's Episcopal Church so we stopped inside to check it out. They were actually having a service so we didn't stay too long. This really nice lady tried to get us to stay, but we told her we were short on time (which we were, we had to leave no later than 2:00 to get back to Boston in time to get ready for the concert that night). She gave us a brochure that had information about the church, as well as the bulletin for that day's service. If we had more time, we would have stayed to check out the service. It wasn't very crowded, but everyone seemed really nice.
We only had a few hours to spend in Salem, so we stopped by the visitor's center to see what were the "must see" places in town. We met this really nice gentleman named Bob who drew on a map of the best places to see. It saved us from wandering around wasting time (and seeing some really cheesy witch museums- which he confirmed were NOT worth the price of admission).
Bob- super nice guy!
Our first stop was the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. There are 20 granite "benches" with the names of those who were executed for being a "witch". Across from the memorial was the cemetery where most of those involved in the witch trials are buried. It's the second oldest burial ground in the United States.
I really enjoyed walking around Salem, it seems like a neat, peaceful little town. I really wish we had more time to spend there.
There were a lot of places we didn't have time to tour, like the Custom House and the Friendship, but we went by them anyways.
We were able to go by The House of Seven Gables, which is a mansion that was built in 1668 and was the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The House of Seven Gables. I'm just going to go ahead and confess I've never read it. But maybe I should. We didn't have time for the tour, but the nice ladies at the front desk gave us a "visitor's pass" so we could at least look around the outside of it.
The most important stop of our trip was at Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie, which is America's oldest candy company. Sadly it was too hot to buy any of the chocolate (we were afraid it would melt), but I did pick up some mints.
This nice guy took our picture by the harbor.
We met this cutie during our walk around Salem, his name was Sampson.
We made a quick stop at the Witch House, which is the only remaining structure that has ties to the witchcraft trials from the 1600s. Jonathan Corwin was the trial judge and he lived here. Next time I go to Salem, I'll take the tour inside!
We continued on to Chestnut Street, which is a registered national historic landmark. There were some beautiful homes there! There was one called The Phillips House which is one of the mansions you can actually go in and tour.
We stopped for a quick lunch before heading back to Boston. We wanted to rest for a while before heading out to see New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, and 98 Degrees!!
Thanks to Jodi for letting me borrow a dress...and shoes...and jewelry, for the concert! :)
On our way to meet Jodi's cousin for dinner, we went by TD Garden (the arena where the concert was being held) and just randomly saw Nick and Drew Lachey (from 98 Degrees) getting into a van. Nick waved at us.
Nick Lachey
Dinner before the concert
After dinner, we headed to TD Garden. Our seats were pretty much at the top of the arena, but we didn't care! :) I wonder if Joey could see us?? Yes, 25 years later, I'm still all about Joey McIntyre (don't judge). :)
The three pictures on the left are ones I took. The better other ones I stole borrowed from each band's Twitter and Facebook pages.
I didn't take this video, but this was the night we were there. NKOTB and the crowd singing "Sweet Caroline".
During the concert we met these two guys who were sitting next to us. They were funny and they knew ALL the songs from New Kids on the Block. We actually hung out with them for a while after the concert. Jodi and I didn't get back to her place until 3am. Good grief, I can't remember the last time I was out that late, I'm DEFINITELY not as young as I used to be! I was so ready to go to sleep!
